I recently started a debate on my Facebook page about the #NewAge/ #SelfHelp guru, #TonyRobbins. It included a link to an article about the properties that he owns; he owns a number of properties, including a $24.75 million dollar mansion, which he intends to "improve" at an estimated cost of $8-10 million. His second home cost just under $4 million. He also owns a 525 acre resort and spa in Fiji.
He can afford all that because he is worth $480,000,000 (at the last count).
I made the suggestion that it is immoral for any person to own such properties or to be worth such a vast fortune when we live in a world where HALF the population of the globe - that is, approximately 3,000,000,000 people - do not have adequate #shelter, #nutrition and #sanitation. I also made further suggestions, in the comment thread below, that people like Robbins should be heavily taxed... just as the uber-rich were, before #Friedmanite economics took hold... first in the Chile of the brutal mass murderer, #GeneralPinochet (1973), and then in the UK, under #Thatcher (1979) and the USA under #Reagan (1980).
Prior to these changes, the rich were paying upwards of 90% of the upper portions of their earnings. Things were not equal then, but they were more equitable. The #Beatles, for example, still managed to become multi-millionaires, despite having to pay substantial taxes. We weren't living in a #socialist #dystopia, as some #Tories would have you believe.
Many people have forgotten - or have chosen to forget - what fine public services we used to have here in the UK. We had the best health service in the world. We had free university education, with a grant system to support people from poor backgrounds. We had cheap, publicly owned public transport systems. We had cheap energy provided by publicly owned energy companies. We had a more than adequate welfare system. All of these were hard fought for, and were introduced by the #ClementAtlee led #Labour Government of 1945-1951.
People have forgotten - or have chosen to forget - what #HaroldMacMillan (a relatively decent Tory) once said, that "we'd never had it so good".
Now, we have food banks, used by upwards of 500,000 (some estimates say one million) people in the UK. We have a failing #NHS, which is being #privatised by stealth. The #WelfareSystem is falling apart, with #disabled people being denied #benefits and told they are fit to work, with unemployed people being denied benefits and forced to use #FoodBanks. The privatised rail and bus companies are charging such a fortune that it is actually cheaper to drive. The privatised energy companies have been hiking their prices up, year on year, at substantially more than the rate of inflation, meaning that many of the most vulnerable in society cannot afford to adequately heat their homes.
And that is JUST in the UK. Once we take a look at the rest of the world, we see #IndustrialScalePoverty. We see shanty towns of millions of people, on the edges of cities such as #Mumbai in #India and #RioDeJaneiro in #Brazil, famous for the poverty and squalor that the residents live in. We hear stories, constantly, of droughts or other natural disasters, where MILLIONS die, whilst #Western countries are always tardy and far from generous in their response. We know that half the population of the world does not have adequate shelter, sanitation or nutrition, that approximately 3,000,000,000 are deprived of their basic necessities.
My argument is with the super-rich, like Tony Robbins, like #BillGates, like the #KochBrothers, like the rest of that elite 1% who own 50% of the world's wealth, which is, according to the website, fortune.com, $250,000,000,000.
That vast fortune is owned by just over 100,000 people. Can you imagine that!??
Can you accept that?
Personally, I cannot. I grew up in a family of four children, and was taught the virtue of sharing at a very early age. I was taught it was fair to share. I was taught it was caring to share. I was taught this by my parents. I was also taught this at nursery school. I imagine Tony Robbins and Bill Gates were too.
And yes, I know, both of them "give" to charity, but, in reality it is a tiny percentage of their total worth that they give, and a tiny percentage compared to the tax that they would have paid had Friedmanite economics not prevailed.
I was taken to task by a number of people for questioning Tony Robbins' spirituality, for suggesting that if he was truly spiritual he would not be quite as acquisitive as he is. I think perhaps I touched a raw nerve there.
Ever since the advent of spiritual hucksters like #BhagwanShreeRajneesh and #MaharishiMaheshYogi, back in the #1960s, it has been touted that it is okay to be rich and that you can "still be rich and spiritual"... which was handy, considering the fortunes that those two amassed.
Prior to that, if you chose to follow the spiritual path, material wealth was seen as a barrier to progress... and that is the way it was for THOUSANDS of years, until a Rolls-Royce loving guru claimed otherwise.
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who later rebranded himself as #Osho, was a sensualist reprobate who appealed greatly to the Western mindset, offering up a hodge-podge or recycled #Hindu spirituality, with a massive dose of #FreeLove, a smattering of fashionable #psychotherapy and the powerful, aspirational message that you can be "spiritual" without having to deprive yourself. Perfect for the hedonistic, trust fund hippies, who lapped up Bhagwan's bullshit... and who continued to lap it up, even after his second in command was convicted of attempting to poison hundreds of people, even after Bhagwan was done for avoiding taxes, even after he was exposed for being addicted to #diazepam and #NitrousOxide, even after his premature death at the early age of 58 from heart failure. Needless to say, they never questioned the 93 #RollsRoyces, nor his avowed desire to collect 365 (one for every day of the year).
Prior to Rajneesh, if you had serious, spiritual aspirations, you gave up the material life and you went to live in a cave or a monastery, and you dedicated your entire life to practices that required great rigour and self-discipline.
Nowadays, people imagine they are "spiritual" if they make "vision boards" and practice affirmations, if they buy crystals and dream-catchers, if they do a bit of yoga or tai chi... and amongst wealthier spiritual aspirants, there are many who think nothing of spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars to go and see the likes of Tony Robbins or Abraham-Hicks.
So yeah, of course it triggers people if the 50 year old myth, that "you can be rich and spiritual" is questioned.
For thousands of years, it was understood you could not.
Jesus, for example, made it clear that it would be easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than it would be for a rich person to get into heaven. That's quite a graphic illustration, isn't it?
All the famous Indian gurus, prior to the 1960s, lived humble lives of material poverty.
So who do you pay attention to for spiritual guidance?
The likes of Ramana Maharishi, who spent his entire life in meditation and contemplation, living in a cave? Or the likes of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, who owned 93 Rolls Royces and was addicted to diazepam and nitrous oxide?
I know who I would choose.
I believe - purely and simply - that you cannot be rich and spiritual. Whilst there are three billion people that do not have adequate shelter, sanitation and nutrition, having so much more than your fair share of the world's resources is, to me, a spiritual abomination. As far as I am concerned, the only way forward, both spiritually and materially, is for us all to truly learn to share!
(When I criticise the likes of Tony Robbins or Osho, people sometimes point the finger at me and ask me what I am doing to make the world a better place. Well, I am doing what I can, with the skills that I have! My primary skill is writing. I am not as good at writing as I would like to be, but I try my best. I share my thoughts and ideas. And sometimes, some of the things I write resonate with others... and maybe, occasionally, something I write will help someone to expand their point of view or even change their mind. I keep writing posts like this - putting many hours into each post, for no remuneration - because I believe the only way forward is for us to care for each other, and that includes sharing this planet's resources more fairly and using these resources more consciously. My voice, is just one amongst many, but there is a growing army of people who share these points of view... and one day - sadly, probably not in my lifetime - us human beings truly will be a more caring, more sharing, more conscious, more loving species.)